Rumor: Are WB and DC Prepping a ‘Legion of Super-Heroes’ Film?

It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment have been actively observing the surprise success of Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy and quietly combing their own library of comics characters to see if something conceptually similar can be made to emulate the success. If this rumor is true, then not only have they found that property, but they’ve also found something that could potentially outdo Guardians’ success. According to Latino Review, Warner Bros. has started putting out feelers to screenwriters to develop a film based on DC’s intergalactic team of heroes from the far future: the Legion of Super-Heroes.

The Legion was a very important formative contact for young Clark Kent, with all of them seen here on the cover art for Superman: Secret Origin #2 by Gary Frank.

According to LR:

Warners is quietly sending out the DC comic book Legion Of Superheroes to screenwriters & their reps for takes. For non-industry folks, what that means is that screenwriters check out the comic book and come up for a movie idea involving the characters from that comic. Those writers then go to the studio to pitch their idea. The studio then hires the screenwriter they feel has the best idea or take for the film.

While this should definitely excite comics fans, hopefully the studio will be a little more cautious with attempting to match Marvel, since 2011’s Green Lantern was largely seen as an effort to mimic the success of 2008’s Iron Man, with the result being critical and commercial disappointment. If approached correctly, though, WB has a rather unique opportunity to both create a new DC Comics-based franchise with beloved characters (at least to the niche crowd, not unlike Guardians before the film was released), while simultaneously leading to this more obscure property by building and expanding on one of the most time-honored DC Comics film properties, of which there are only two.

You see, the Legion of Super-Heroes actually played a very important role in the development of the DC Universe’s most iconic hero: the Man of Steel himself, Superman. Within the DC Comics Universe, young Clark Kent’s tumultuous and uncertain childhood was eased a bit by the arrival in Smallville of the three most prominent members of the Legion: Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad. These heroes from the 31st century came from an era of peace and prosperity, with one being serving as the guiding light toward humanity’s eventual maturation: Superman had inspired the peoples of Earth and countless other worlds to come together to create a lasting peace, all instilled by the ideals and morality of the Man of Steel. If it takes place in the same universe as Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and the future DC Comics releases, then there’s nothing to say that an unseen moment in Man of Steel Superman’s childhood could’ve included the Legion.

The last time we saw the Legion in live-action was in the WB/CW TV series “Smallville,” where they first appeared in a season eight episode written by comic book superstar scribe Geoff Johns (who had handled their comic book re-emergence just a couple of years prior). One of the coolest parts of that episode was at the very beginning, where a classic Legion villain called the Persuader shows up in the past, and when he lays his eyes on a pre-Superman Clark Kent, he’s all-at-once starstruck and mortified at the same time before the Legion comes in to kick his ass.